Old Photos of the City of Cleveland in Historical Photo Archive

It was a happy day in 1914 when Clevelanders learned that a cache of old city photos had been found.

A photograph, after all, is worth a thousand words—and these old Cleveland, Ohio, photographs told quite a story about the city’s development.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 27 December 1914, page 27

This massive collection of more than 5,000 negatives had been taken over a lifetime by Jerry Greene, long-time Cleveland photographer. The cache of these old city photos of Cleveland was found and rescued by Stanley McMichael in 1914.

You too can find and rescue your family’s old photographs by searching for those that were published in the nation’s newspapers over the past century and more. Uncover your ancestors’ old pictures from events such as birthdays, graduations, marriages, family reunions and more. See historical pictures of the cities and towns they lived in and watch them grow. These old photos can provide a true sense of what life was like during their times.

Search the historical photo archive using only a surname to find photos and illustrations of your relatives, or search on the name of their home town to find images of the ancestral towns where your family was from.